


any court in the galaxy would call this a genocide

by 49percentchanceofbees



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Background Relationships, Gen, Genocide, Geth, Synthesis Ending, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-09 08:54:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12884409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/49percentchanceofbees/pseuds/49percentchanceofbees
Summary: Shepard talks to EDI about her decision to allow the quarians to destroy the geth.





	any court in the galaxy would call this a genocide

**Author's Note:**

> Somehow I didn't make the right choices in my playthrough to have the option to let the geth and quarians peacefully coexist, and, well, the result was rather devastating either way.
> 
> Actually wrote this back when I first played through the game, so that was ... fall 2016? I'm not sure. Added the last line at time of posting, since that was in fact my thought process at the end of the game.

 

“EDI?”

The query came through the intercom in Shepard’s cabin. For privacy, EDI’s perception of that area was minimal: no cameras, no audio. She could access the intercom, of course, and Shepard’s personal terminal, and could probably find a way to interface with the VI the commander had recently bought to care for her fish, though it was difficult to find a legitimate purpose that would justify that expansion of EDI’s abilities.

“Commander?”

“The quarians are hunting down what’s left of the geth.” It was a fact of which EDI was very well aware. “If you can perceive any geth signals … ”

Ah. This was the part where EDI helped mop up the last of the fleeing geth, to prove that she was a _good_ AI, pliant and obedient to her organic masters, unlike those cold, unfeeling metallic monsters.

“I’d like you to do anything you can do hide them from the quarians.”

EDI did not ask Shepard to repeat the instruction. She had, of course, heard and understood perfectly. And she was too intelligent to need to ask what the commander meant.

“You do not wish for the quarians to exterminate the geth.”

“No. I don’t.” Shepard sounded tired. The _commander_ sounded tired. The indefatigable Commander Shepard … Except she wasn’t, was she? Shepard did not allow her shoulders to sag or despair to show when anyone else was watching, but EDI was always watching. “I didn’t want … Well, it didn’t make much of a difference to the end result, but this is far from my ideal outcome.”

“The quarians have their home-world back. They will be a considerable asset in the fight against the Reapers.”

“So would the geth, as you pointed out.” Shepard sighed. “I’m sorry, EDI. I hoped to end this war with a negotiated peace, not a slaughter.”

A moment of silence. “Why are you apologizing to me?”

“I don’t know.” Shepard’s laugh didn’t sound very amused. “Because, in my limited and blinkered mind, I’ve imagined a kinship between you and the geth simply by virtue of both being synthetic, although God knows that’s no real reason for it, or I’d be singing Kumbaya with a pack of varren. Or maybe because you’re the only other person on this ship who seems at all bothered by the fact that we just wiped an entire sentient race from the galaxy. I thought Tali might … but she’s chosen to focus on the positives, and I can hardly blame her, with all of Rannoch’s beauty arrayed before her. It seems she regrets Legion, the individual geth, not the species as a whole, and even then she’s managed to convince herself that it wasn’t really our friend … ‘The real Legion would have understood’ …”

Several words stood out among Shepard’s speech, those she’d chosen for synthetics: _person_ , _sentient race_ , _friend_ … The commander’s phrasing was more rambling than usual – EDI could calculate the increased frequency of commas, the greater complexity of clauses. Likely a sign of distress, or at least inner turmoil. Was Shepard truly talking to inform EDI, or just because she needed to express her emotions?

“I thought I could convince the quarians and the geth to coexist. The geth appeared amenable enough to the prospect – Legion kept telling me how they sought self-preservation, how the creators had attacked them, tried to destroy them. How they were slaves of the Reapers now, and freeing them would end the war. And the quarians … Whatever threats I had to make, whoever I had to bully, I expected to pull it off. When Tali told me she thought attacking was a mistake – Tali, whose father dissected geth, who saw them wreak havoc under Saren … When we rescued Admiral Koris, I really believed we could pull it off. If I could just make them see that the geth didn’t have to be their enemy … ”

Expressing emotions, then. Another long sigh.

“The quarians were the aggressor in this war, and in the one before. If the geth were organics, any court in the galaxy would call this a genocide. The right thing to do was letting Legion upgrade the geth, giving them a chance, and leaving the quarians to pay for their poor decisions, for attacking a peaceful race. I _knew_ that at the time. And I didn’t do it.

“Ever since I’ve been trying to think of ways to make it right, or at least to make it a little better. I would have Admiral Gerrel tried for war crimes – but Gerrel’s a hero now, the savior of the quarians, the one who delivered them back their home-world. I would find surviving geth, protect them, save them, download their programs to safe drives, throw my body between them and the quarian bullets … There’s nothing. Nothing I can do. I can’t fix my choices. I try to rationalize it: the quarians had civilians, had children, who hadn’t chosen this war – but _none_ of the geth chose it. The geth took the quarian home-world, but it was their home-world, too. Probably my justifications would satisfy the Council, the Alliance, most of the galaxy – but they don’t satisfy me. In the end I guess it boils down to familiarity, as you said. Emotion. Bias. I couldn’t do that to Tali’s people. I couldn’t do that to Tali.”

“You care for Tali’Zorah a great deal.”

“Yes.” In that one word EDI read hundreds of wistful glances, the way Shepard’s gaze lingered on the quarian, the deep worry in the commander’s eyes when Tali received word of her upcoming trial for treason … Behaviors also observed in Kaidan. And Jeff?

“EDI, I’m not telling you this to try and get your sympathy, or as an excuse, to improve your opinion of me. At least, I hope I’m not. I’m saying it because I need to tell someone; I’m self-aware to know that much. But I also wanted you to know that I didn’t take this decision lightly. I didn’t say ‘oh, they’re just synthetics’ and move on. What I’ve done here will burden me for the rest of my life. I have to keep going because I have to fight the Reapers, but when that’s done … I intend to resign, retire from galactic politics, because my current position requires me to make choices like this, choose who lives and who dies, and I don’t trust myself to do that justly anymore.”

 

**

Later, after Synthesis, EDI knew, with a deep knowledge that had no source but also needed none, that she now lived in the commander's apology.


End file.
